Kaua‘i’s Place-Based Science Internship Fosters Community Collaboration and Future Leaders

Interns learning about which varieties of kalo are most suitable for specific conditions.

Interns viewing endemic and rare plant vouchers at the Bishop Museum.

Interns building a rock enclosure to reinforce the ʻauwai.

Nine high school and college students have spent the past five weeks exploring career and college pathways in natural science, conservation and food security through the Nā Pua Noʻeau program. These students performed community service work with Limahuli National Tropical Botanical Gardens and Hui Makaʻāinana o Makana during a month-long paid internship, and also received three college credits towards Sustainable Science Management through Kauaʻi Community College.

Four days a week were spent working with experts in the field in Hāʻena learning about environmental engineering, policy building, botany, and horticulture, while also working with cultural practitioners. One day out of each week focused on studies at Kauaʻi CC. The summer intensive internship culminated at the Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference in Oahu.

Nā Pua Noʻeau Kauaʻi Program Director Mālia Chun said the beautiful thing about working with the community of Hāʻena is what it symbolizes in community-based stewardship.

Hui Makaʻainana o Makana is a community-based organization formed by lineal descendants of Hāʻena who work with the state parks department and Limahuli Garden and Preserve to manage and restore the upper Limahuli reserve,  loʻi, poi mill, and other historical sites in the area, as well as manage the community-based subsistence fishing area. These organizations work together to manage the ahupuaʻa of Hāʻena as a whole in an effort to preserve culture and natural resources. Tourism to these areas has also been managed by limiting daily visitors.

Chun said this type of collaboration to create equitable tourism in a small community and care for the ahupuaʻa as a whole can be an example for the rest of the islands.

“As someone from Kauaʻi, I’ve seen how the burden of tourism has affected the small community and its resources,” Chun said. “This initiative and partnership have really become an example of how community-based stewardship is effective, and is a great model for other small communities in Hawai’i who feel overburdened, and these interns get to see and experience this system up close.”

“When you bridge the gap of traditional knowledge and modern-day science, you are able to more effectively care for our ʻāina,” Chun said.

The main instructor for this summer program is Kauaʻi CC Instructor for Sustainable Science Management, Kama Chock. Chock said the first week of the program consisted of building pilina, or connection, with Hāʻena, the people, work, and plants there. The following weeks gave the students a plethora of educational opportunities, such as learning about different plant and soil nutrient cycles on a global scale with a community-specific focus in regards to examples such as climate change.

“I think that’s something that is really special about community-based management and building pilina with place,” Chock said.  “We are able to come up with non-cookie-cutter solutions to environmental problems. This model of college overlap with community work is the future of education in Hawaiʻi.”

Loea Keanaʻaina is headed to Oregon State as a freshman this fall and said the internship has helped her narrow down her college pathway to conservation and environmental engineering. She said she knew she wanted to go into environmental science, but wasn’t entirely sure until they learned about the ʻauwai, an open channel irrigation system for agriculture, primarily used for loʻi kalo.

“I’m going to see what pathways open up, but I want to do research and be a scientist, or engineer, or maybe both,” Keanaʻaina said. “I want to travel and learn and help out where I can, but I want to eventually come back here and take everything I’ve learned and try to implement it here.”

Kealaula Perry is going to be a senior at Kamehameha Kapālana this year and said this program has been very eye-opening for her because she grew up in Lawaʻi Valley and never spent much time on the north shore. She also said this program has helped her narrow down her interests in the science field to water engineering and cultural engineering.

“I think it was super interesting to see how different organizations work together to accomplish a goal, like Hui and Limahuli have a main goal of preserving the same area,” Perry said. “They worked with the community-based subsistence fishing area and the state to eventually accomplish their goals, and it’s really interesting to see how they work together. For example, how the data from fish monitoring affects the broader description of Hāʻena.”

Perry said an experience she really enjoyed was hiking into Limahuli to study olonā – a very rare and endangered Hawaiian plant used for cordage.

“We saw plants we’ve only ever heard stories of,” Perry said. “It’s cool to see how they’re revitalizing native plants and reestablishing the cultural practices attached to them.”

“I’m just super grateful for everything and this opportunity as someone who doesn’t visit that side of the island often,” Perry said. “The funds and the transportation to get there to learn how unique Hāʻena is as an ahupuaʻa compared to the rest of the island is something I’m so grateful for in this program.”

Nā Pua No’eua was established in the late 80’s to create a pipeline for Native Hawaiians to attain post-highschool degrees. Chun has been working with these supplemental educational programs through Nā Pua No’eau since she went through the UH system.

“One of the reasons I helped to plan this internship is because I want these students to see themselves as part of a succession plan,” Chun said. “When they meet these experts in the field, I want them to see themselves in these professions. There is a way for them to make a living wage at home doing what they love, and we need more Native Hawaiians represented in the natural science and conservation fields.”

(Photos and video available upon request. Contact Caitlin Fowlkes by emailing cfowlkes@hawaii.edu)